Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008 - (Page 25)

only. Everyone is interested and will show up to speak their points of view. 2. Prepare an informational brochure to mail out to all who live in your jurisdiction. Communication is the key; you must get the proper information out and stop any rumors that may start. 3. Don’t think you can slide this big of a law or ordinance through without your residents knowing about it. You must get them to buy into it. 4. Communicate with your public officials, mayor, city council, city manager, etc. prior to any action. You must have the support of the local government to be successful. 5. Consult your city attorney throughout the whole process. You don’t want to have a legal technicality stop you from accomplishing your goal. 6. Make sure your city charter will allow you to do what it is you are trying to do. 7. Keep your fi refighters up on all that is going on. They will be approached by the public while out on calls. Make sure they understand what it is you are trying to do and why it is so important to accomplish it. 8. Be prepared to be the bad guy – not our natural role. Require people to spend money where they don’t feel it’s necessary and really fi nd out how bad it can be. 9. Don’t loose focus of what you’re trying to accomplish: saving lives and property. It’s easy to forget why you started all this in the first place; keep your eye on the big picture. 10. Don’t give up. There will be many obstacles thrown in your way; find a way around them and move on. 11. Questions will arise regarding the cost added to the price of building a new home. We have found the price runs an additional $1.50-$1.75 per square foot installed. 12. Water leaks in the home – sprinkler systems are tested with much greater pressure than your domestic water throughout your home. Very rarely do you have a leak. 13. Petitions against the passing may be started and given to the elected officials. This is where correct information and communication come in. Some of the comments we found on the petitions that were given to the council were: A. I do not understand the logic of this. Are our taxes not sufficient? B. My lot is roughly 30 feet from a fi re hydrant. C. We’re capable of making our personal decisions and don’t need the government to do so. We pay taxes for fire protection and insurance premiums for claim coverage. D. We don’t need an ordinance of this kind on the books. What we really need is to have our water pressure maintained at an adequate level at all times. TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Fall/Winter 2008 E. I don’t want the government interfering anymore; this is absurd. F. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. G. This ordinance is ridiculous. H. Think before you act. I. I believe this ordinance is absolutely unnecessary and has no definable pay-off. J. I believe homeowners are the best judges of their needs and the decisions can safely be left to them. To date, 396 homes have been built and completed with residential sprinkler systems in the Villages. The program went so well that after a couple of years the remaining cities dropped the minimum 10,000 square feet clause and changed their ordinance to include all new construction over 1,000 square feet. With all the residential fi res we’ve had since the fi rst sprinkler system was put in, we haven’t had a large dollar loss in any of the homes fitted with sprinkler systems (to date, we’ve had five fi res in sprinkled homes). However, homes without sprinkler systems have obtained dollar losses in the millions. One particular fi re comes to mind. We were called early one morning to a large two-story home on fi re. When we arrived, smoke was coming from the second floor of the home. The home was about 10,000 square feet in size, and set at the end of a cul-de-sac. Units went inside to fi nd a fi re on the second floor had been extinguished by the sprinkler system. After assuring the fi re hadn’t spread, the water was shut off to the system by the crew. The fi re had been contained to the ceiling area of one room with a minimum fi re and water damage. Once the fi re crews had picked up and left, a couple of us were still on scene doing some paperwork when the lady of the home came up to speak to us. She explained that she had been one of the people who had started up a petition to stop the residential sprinkler system ordinance from passing. She was totally against the idea of having to put one in her home and was one of the loudest voices of protest at the time. She then said she was very sorry for having done so. She was now a strong believer and would talk to anyone we needed her to about the positive out comes of having a sprinkler system. She was so grateful and explained that she hadn’t been home at the time of the fi re, but her two small children had been sleeping just a few feet away from where it had started. Without the sprinkler system, she had no guarantee that they would still be alive and couldn’t thank us enough for fighting to have the ordinance passed. You may never have a positive story to tell like this one, but without residential sprinkler systems in your jurisdiction you may well have a very negative story to tell in your future. You can fi nd information regarding sprinkler systems numerous places. Go out and start something positive – push for sprinklers in all new homes. 25

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008

Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008 Contents Executive Director’s Report Texas Fire Chiefs Academy Project Reports Southwest Fire Rescue Conference Program Membership Application Customer Service Orientation in Fire Rescue Departments A Visit to the E-One Plant Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2008

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